Undated photograph of the Dymaxion House

In November of 2007, I visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan with my family. Of all the exhibits that I saw, my favorite was Buckminster Fuller‘s Dymaxion House.

The house was conceived as way to help the airline industries transition away from airplane manufacturing in the post-World War Two era. The Dymaxion House was designed as a prefabricated metal house that could be delivered directly to buyers. Since it was only a prototype, there were only three were made and only the Dymaxion House at the Henry Ford Museum still survives.

The other day I stumbled on the Domespace building design and after watching the video videos below, I can help seeing the interesting parallels between the two designs.

They are both:
• Circular
• Internally customizable
• Prefabricated
• Environmentally friendly
• Can rotate along with the sun

However, there are some interesting differences:
• The Dymaxion House used aluminum for the exterior and much of interior furnishings
• The Domespace is constructed primarily out of wood
• The Dymaxion House was supported top down from one central pole
• The Domespace is built from the ground up
• The Dymaxion House is a relic of mid-twentieth technology
• You can buy the Domespace right now!

Watch these videos to get a better ideal of the design:

Someday I’d love to have a hybrid of the two houses on a big plot of land with a nice view :-)

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